The current system of elementary level reading instruction allows no place for reading for pleasure. While few deny the teacher's role in helping children master the mechanics of reading, some question whether it is equally important to help children learn the inherent pleasure of reading literature for its own sake. The current systems approach to reading instruction, which is supported from many ranks, also precludes reading for pleasure, perpetuating isolated skills and making teachers the tool of the method instead of the other way around. The form and format of basal readers used in reading instruction confuse the reader who is reading for either pleasure or information because basals are not literary constructs with a beginning, middle, and end, but rather a series of unrelated and interrupted reading episodes. The exercises that occur before, during, and after a basal reading passage bear no resemblance to what a reader does before, during, and after pleasure reading. Ensuring a place for pleasure reading in the 1980s requires (1) giving teachers moral, professional, and financial support to challenge the systems approach; (2) providing children with the time, the physical and human environment, and the materials to encourage pleasurable reading; and (3) counting teacher successes rather than failures. (HTH)